US Boycott affects sales

Thanks for the post. I was part of that boycott, but eventually I got over it.

Dan-O

(Alas it didn't drop the prices of Burgundies and Rhônes and Languedocs, that I noticed. Possibly those were not the wines the boycotters knew and dropped?)

I, in the US, feel that such a boycott was idiotic and (as usual when people lash out at convenient targets of opportunity) likely even counterproductive to the boycotters' own aims. (Such views were shared, I found, by some winemaking families I spoke to in France at the time, who, being people and not vague feel-good targets like "nations," sometimes had similar views on the political issue as did the US people who were trying to harm these families through boycott.)

A couple of dramatic, instructive examples I've seen of the target-of-opportunity mindset were a poster on some newsgroups in the late

I agree.

I was and am boycotting most french wines in my cellar.

I have purchased quite a few of the Bordeaux 2000's including some first growths. These I plan to boycott for about 10-20 years.

I am continuing to boycott my 1995 top growths.

Most Champagne I found required little boycotting. The caseo of Cristal

My boycott is civilized. I decide when I buy how long to boycott. :-)

I think big buck buyers like the Japanese who seem to have more money than they know what to do with, and most probably European buyers never stopped buying. Its still well overpriced here sadly.

It was a bit silly really.

Especially in light of the fact subsequently its been shown some US and Australian companies were in fact giving millions if not billions to Saddam anyway in kickbacks.

Which makes it all even sillier. Perhaps we should now all drink French wine and boycott US and Australian wine. See how silly that sounds.

Thanks for the levity, Mr. Neidich. I just broke a three-day boycott of Bella Sera Pinot Grigio!

Dan-O

Richard Neidich wrote:

Most in this group do not seem to find my humor funny :-(

Dan-O

Richard Neidich wrote:

Well, I thought it was "cute"

counterproductive

This is a good point: in my limited travels through Burgundy, I discovered most folks there were not nearly as left-leaning as those in Paris. In fact, there was quite a bit of resentment toward Paris. Sort of like how folks in those "fly-over" states feel toward NY, LA, and DC.

Salut/Hi eNo,

le/on Tue, 14 Feb 2006 10:05:50 -0800, tu disais/you said:-

You ARE aware that Mr Chirac and his government are both right wing are you? Well ... not by George Dubya standards perhaps, but nevertheless right wing by European standards.

There is and has always been strong resentment against Paris throughout France, but that's because France has always been strongly centralist. To the extent that at one time, in every secondary school in France, students on a particular day at a particular time would be studying from the same page of the same book - 1968 put an end to that.

So the Burgundians hate being told what to do by anybody. Especially if it exposes their nice little earners - adding a bit of Rhone wine in light years - it used to be Algerian, but the Parisians threw Algeria away... and so on. Not all Burgundians do that sort of thing, thank heavens, but I guess there's enough of them to make it hard for the honest ones to take a strong line of moral disapproval.